Photograph (Experimental Photogenic Drawing), by Sir John Herschel, 1842 | |||||||||||
| Inventory Number: | 19112 | ||||||||||
| Object Type: | | ||||||||||
| Persons: |
Sir John Frederick William Herschel (Photographer) | ||||||||||
| Date Created: | 1842 | ||||||||||
| Accession Number: | 1928-71 | ||||||||||
| Brief Description: | Experimental photogenic drawing by Sir John Herschel, undated but 1842. The annotation describes the 'argentotype' process, the sister process of the chrysotype using silver instead of gold to develop a semi-latent image. The yellow colour is characteristic of the iron-based sensitising chemistry, while the surviving area of very fine purply-brown detail is a vestige of the high quality the process (like the chrysotype) appeared to be capable of. Like all silver processes it should have been fixable with hypo, but perhaps Herschel left this experiment unfixed. Double border, which sometimes indicates a positive print. Subject: engraving, not discernible, double border Technique: ?contact copy Format: inscription horizontal Polarity: xxx Orientation: not apparent Quality: mostly no discernible image, but area of very fine purply-brown detail Colour: blotchy yellow and pale brownish, purply-brown vestigial image, yellowy blotchy back Chemistry: iron based, developed with silver nitrate, probably unfixed Coating: none Inscription: number, procedural and chemical notes Paper: thin Condition: good Purpose: an experimental argentotype (see above). For fuller descriptive and historical commentary see narratives. | ||||||||||
| Primary Inscriptions: | '771 [mark like superscript 2] good [sun symbol] h --[long dash] a pale pict just discernl[?] then weak NS' [nitrate of silver; in Herschel's hand].
'771' on front. | ||||||||||
| Provenance: | Presented by Miss Herschel and Lady Lubbock in 1928. They were the two surviving and youngest children of Sir John Herschel (Francisca and Constance). | ||||||||||
| Collection Group: | Herschel's Photographic Experiments | ||||||||||
| Material(s): |
Paper | ||||||||||
| Dimensions: |
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Narratives | |||||||||||
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